S.W.A.T. (2019 film)
Resistance: The Last Knight is a 2017 American science fiction action film based on Hasbro's toy lines: Transformers, G.I. Joe, Tonka, and My Little Pony. It is the twenty-eighth film in the Hasbro Cinematic Universe. The film was directed by Justin Lin, and produced by Michael Bay, and Stephen Sommers. The Last Knight features a large assemble cast including Transformers film voice actors Peter Cullen, Frank Welker, Dan Gilvezan, Michael Bell, Jim Carter, Judd Nelson, Ken Watanabe, John Goodman, John DiMaggio, Gregg Berger, Nolan North, Steve Buscemi, Charlie Adler, Jess Harnell, Travis Willingham, Steven Blum, Dave Boat, and Troy Baker along with My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic television series regular voice cast of Tara Strong, Ashleigh Ball, Andrea Libman, Tabitha St. Germain and Cathy Weseluck, G.I. Joe film stars Channing Tatum, Marlon Wayans, Ray Park, Adrianne Palicki, D.J. Cotrona, Rachel Nichols, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Christopher Eccleston, and Tonka films stars Pete L. J. Dickson, Missy Peregrym, Mark Wahlberg and Lauren Compton, and voice actors Mark Harmon, David Boreanaz, Jay Baruchel, and James Marsden. The characters Action Man, Rom, M.A.S.K., Battleship, Visionaires, and Micronaunts do not appear in The Last Knight due to the upcoming release of First Strike (2018). In the film, the Resistance reunites as a new foe named Quintessa plans to destroy Eath which is actually Unicron's son, Prometheus. Production started in 2013. Lin was hired to direct the third Resistance after John Singleton chose not to return to direct. Several cast members from the previous HCU films signed on for the third film, with Matt Damon and Anthony Hopkins joining the cast. The film was produced by Hasbro Studios, Skydance Media, and DHX Media, using traditional animation created with Toon Boom Harmony. With an estimated production budget of $340 million, it is one of the most expensive films ever made. The film premiered at Odeon Leicester Square in London on June 18, 2017, and was theatrically released in the United States on June 23, 2017, by Paramount Pictures with Lionsgate in 2D, 3D, and IMAX 3D. It received mostly positive reviews from critics: criticism was aimed at the story, and over-use of characters, while praise was directed at the visuals, character relationships, music, soundtrack, action sequences, and both live performances and voice performances. The Last Knight grossed over $2.42 billion worldwide, making it the highest grossing film of 2017 and the highest grossing HCU film. Plot During the cold war in 1968, as Joesph Colton leads his team in an assault on a compound in South Vietnam, he and his men are transported to the land of Equestria, where it is being attacked by a monstersous creature. Colton agrees to help save the village. The original Alicorns visit and beg for help from the Knights of Iacon, a group of twelve Transformers who have hidden on 2D Earth. They give the ailcorns an alien staff and combine themselves into a huge robotic dragon named Dragonstorm to help Colton triumph over the creature, but not before warning the alicorns that a great evil will one day come for the staff. In the present, four years after the battle of Chicago, the battle of Zeus, and the battle of Razaka, Duke and Tonka Joe are rescued by their fellow forces: G.I. Joe and Tonka. All the while, enormous metallic horns begin to rise from different parts of the world. Meanwhile, in deep space, Optimus Primal crash lands on a forbidden planet named Olympus-Mon, discovering that it is heading directly for Earth. He encounters Quintessa, the self-proclaimed creator of the Transformers, who brainwashes Optimus and renames him "Nemesis Primal", and her first lieutenant Nero. Quintessa tasks him with recovering the staff from the Knights, who had stolen it from her after betraying her. She then reveals Earth is actually Prometheus, the son of Cybertron's ancient enemy, Unicron, and she intends to drain its life force using the staff so that Olympus-Mon can be restored. Meanwhile back in Equestria, former Predacon Waspinator is killed when he is unable to find help to kill Nero and stop Quintessa. The other Maximals awake from stasis-lock to discover that during their teleportation back to Cybertron, they were hit by an unknown energy surge that caused them to arrive in Equestria and seperate from Optimus Primal. Rattrap takes command and they form an alliance with the Mane 6 ponies; Twilight Sparkle, her friends, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy – and her assistant, the dragon Spike. They travel to 3D Earth where they learn about Prometheus. In a part of war-torn Chicago, the group find a ship with a knight inside,who attaches a talisman to Twilight's arm, before being caught by a Cobra drone. The group defeat the drone before escaping. The Decepticon Barricade observes this act and reports the discovery to Megatron. On Cybertron, Optimus Prime, and his Autobots; Bumblebee, Hot Rod, Sideswipe, his twin Sunstreaker, Perceptor, Drift, Hound, Crosshairs, Grimlock, Smokescreen, and Prowl, return to Earth after learning about Prometheus' awaking. As they reunite the Resistance (minus Action Man, Rom, M.A.S.K., Battleship, Visionaires and Micronauts), Optimus is approached by Cogman, a Transformer envoy who takes him, Hot Rod, Bumblebee, Axle, Bolt, Finns, Duke, and Tonka Joe to Ontario to meet Sir Edmund Burton. There, Burton arranges a meeting between Optimus and his resistance, the Maximals, and the Mane 6. Burton introduces himself as the last living member of the "Witwiccan" order, an ancient brotherhood dedicated to guarding the secret history of Equestria, Transformers, and Vehiclians. He reveals that Twilight's talisman indicates she is the Last Knight of Iacon, and the last descendant of the original alicorns, as well as revealing that Twilight must find and use her staff to prevent the impending destruction of Earth by Olympus-Mon. Nero's soldiers arrive at Burton's mansion, forcing the group to flee. As they flee from Nero's troops with help from Megatron and his Decepticons: Starscream, Nitro-Zeus, Soundwave, Onslaught, Swindle, Vortex, Makeshift and Dreadbot, Optimus and the Resistance follow clues Cast Transformers ;Autobots *Peter Cullen voices Optimus Prime, the leader of the Autobots, who transforms into a blue and red 2014 Western Star 5700 Custom semi-trailer truck. *Dan Gilvezan voices Bumblebee, an Autobot scout and Optimus Prime's second-in-command, who transforms into a custom-built yellow and black 2016 Chevrolet Camaro. *Michael Bell voices Sideswipe, the Autobot combat instructor from More Than Meets The Eye who transforms into a red 2015 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray convertible. *Jim Carter voices Perceptor, a renowned Cybertronian scientist who transforms into an Aston Martin DB11. *Judd Nelson voices Hot Rod, an Autobot who transforms into a Citroën DS, before upgrading into a 2017 Lamborghini Centenario LP770-4. He is brother-in-arms with Bumblebee. *Ken Watanabe voices Drift, a Samurai-motif Autobot tactician and former Decepticon who transforms into a black and red 2017 Mercedes-AMG GT R. *John Goodman voices Hound, a trigger-happy Autobot commando and field medic who transforms into an olive green Mercedes-Benz Unimog military tactical ambulance. *John DiMaggio voices Crosshairs, a cocky Autobot paratrooper and sniper who transforms into a green and black 2016 Chevrolet Corvette C7 Stingray, equipped with a custom split-spoiler. His ego lends him a misplaced belief in his future command of the Autobots. *Gregg Berger voices Grimlock, the leader of the Dinobots, who transforms into a mechanical horned, fire-breathing Tyrannosaurus. *Nolan North voices Smokescreen, a young, impulsive and inexperienced Autobot who transforms into a Lotus Exige. *Steve Buscemi voices Sunstreaker, an Autobot who is Sideswipe's twin brother. He transforms into a yellow 2015 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray convertible. *Prowl, an Autobot Ninja Commando who transforms into a RAH-66 Comanche and BMW M5 F10. ;Decepticons *Frank Welker voices Megatron, the leader of the Decepticons, who transforms into a Cybertronian jet. *Charlie Adler voices Starscream, Megatron's second-in-command who transforms into a Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor. *John DiMaggio voices Nitro Zeus, a Decepticon hunter who transforms into an JAS 39 Gripen Fighter Jet. *Jess Harnell voices Barricade, a Decepticon scout who survived the Chicago War in Dark of the Moon. He transforms into a 2016 Ford Mustang police car, featuring a new robot mode. *Frank Welker voices Soundwave, a Decepticon survilance chief who transforms into a silver Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG. *Travis Willingham voices Onslaught, a Decepticon tactician who transforms into a green Western Star 4900SF tow truck. *Steven Blum voices Swindle, a Decepticon who transforms into a Night-Raven. *Dave Boat voices Vortex, a Decepticon who transforms into a AH-64 Apache. *Troy Baker voices Makeshift, a Decepticon commando who transforms into a Chevy Tahoe emergency vehicle. *Nolan North voices Dreadbot, a Decepticon thug who transforms into a Volkswagen Type 2. ;Maximals *Garry Chalk voices Optimus Primal, the leader of the Maximals who transforms into a gorilla, a tank and a aircraft. *Scott McNeil voices Rattrap and Silverbolt *Richard Newman voices Rhinox *Ian James Corlett voices Cheetor, a Maximal who transforms into a Trans-Metal cheetah. ;Others *Gemma Chan as Quintessa, a Cybertronian Sorceress, the "Prime of Life" and the creator of Cybertronians who wants to destroy Unicron and rebuild Cybertron. *Djimon Hounsou voices Nero, Quintessa's first lieutenant. *Scott McNeil voices Waspinator, a former Predacon who is on the hunt for Nero. *Various uncredited actors voice the Knights of Iacon, a group of twelve Cybertronian Knights who protects the Staff and merge to form the three-headed dragon, Dragonstorm. They include Dragonicus, Stormreign, Steelbane, and Skullitron. *Prometheus, a giant planet-destroying Transformer and Unicron's son who is mentioned at various points throughout the film; six of his mechanical horns are seen on Earth. Vehiclians ;Tonka *Mark Harmon voices Axle, leader of the Tonka vehicles *David Boreanaz voices X-Ray, the Tonka vehicles' sniper. *Jay Baruchel voices Bolt, the Tonka vehicles' scout. *James Marsden voices Finns, the Tonka vehicles' marksman. *Eagle Sky, Ninja Commando ;M.E.C.H. *Paul Guilfoyle voices Vett, the leader of the M.E.C.H. vehicles. *Marg Helgenberger voice Kara, the M.E.C.H. vehicles' spy. *Nitro-Hades *Dreadlock *Arrow Humans ;G.I. Joe *Channing Tatum as Conrad S. Hauser / Duke *Marlon Wayans as Wallace A. Weems / Ripcord *Ray Park as Snake Eyes *Adrianne Palicki as Jaye Burnett / Lady Jaye *D.J. Cotrona as Dashiell R. Faireborn / Flint ;Cobra *Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Rexford "Rex" Lewis / Cobra Commander *Christopher Eccleston as Laird James McCullen XXIV / Destro *Taylor Cole as Anastasia Cisarovna / The Baroness *as *as ;Tonka *Pete L. J. Dickson as Joseph L. Blackstone / Tonka Joe *Missy Peregrym as Susan A. Blackstone / Suzy Sparks *Matt Damon as Theodore A. McRonald / Junkyard *Mark Wahlberg as Cade Yeager / Tex *Lauren Compton as Alma Beckett / Rose Montana ;M.E.C.H. *Sean Faris as Max Miller / M.E.C.H. General *as Paige Davis / Street G. *as Lex Hamford / Neo Rod *as *as ;Others *Josh Duhamel as William Lennox, a former NEST commander and U.S. Army Ranger captain, who partnered with the Autobots. *Glenn Morshower as General Morshower, the director of NEST. *John Turturro as Seymour Simmons, a former government agent with Sector Seven and NEST turned successful writer who hides out in Cuba, and was allied with the Autobots. *Anthony Hopkins as Sir Edmund Burton, 12th Earl of Folgan, an astronomer and historian who knows about the history of the Transformers and Vehiclians on Earth. *Byung-hun Lee as Thomas "Tommy" Arashikage / Storm Shadow Equestrians *Tara Strong as Princess Twilight Sparkle, a highly magical and intelligent alicorn who is Equestria's Princess of Friendship, responsible for spreading friendship and harmony across the kingdom. She is also the leader of the "Mane 6" ponies. *Ashleigh Ball as Rainbow Dash and Applejack, two of the "Mane 6"; Rainbow Dash is a loyal pegasus with an adventurous spirit, and Applejack is an honest apple farmer pony. *Andrea Libman as Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, two of the "Mane 6"; Pinkie Pie is a party-obsessed pony filled with joy and laughter, and Fluttershy is a kind yet timid pegasus who cares for animals. *Tabitha St. Germain as Rarity, a generous fashion designer unicorn and one of the "Mane 6". *Cathy Weseluck as Spike the Dragon, Twilight Sparkle's young and faithful assistant. *Emily Blunt as Tempest Shadow, an former embittered unicorn once known as Fizzlepop Berrytwist who served as the Storm King's second-in-command in order to repair her broken horn. Nicole Oliver, St. Germain, and Britt McKillip reprise their respective roles from Friendship Is Magic as alicorns Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and Princess Cadance. Production Development At San Diego Comic-Con International in 2012, Friendship Is Magic head writer Meghan McCarthy commented on the possibility of the characters from the series appearing in the Hasbro Cinematic Universe, saying that it was not in her control whether or not the characters would appear. However, Hasbro Studios later confirmed that My Little Pony would indeed be set in the HCU. In July 2012, Paramount Pictures announced that a third Resistance film would released in 2017. Later that month, John Singleton, who directed the first two Resistance films, announced that he would not return to direct a third film. Following the release of Fast & Furious 7 in May 2013, Justin Lin was hired to direct the film. Paramount began to negotiate with Art Marcum and Matt Holloway (Iron Man), as well as Ken Nolan (Black Hawk Down), to write the film. Lindsey Beer and Geneva Robertson-Dworet were also brought aboard for writing duties. Paramount and Lionsgate spent $80 million on production in Michigan, in return for $21 million in state incentives, under agreements entered into before the state legislature eliminated the film office incentive program in July 2015. In April 2016, Paramount hired cinematographer Jonathan Sela. On May 17, Lin revealed the official title of the film to be The Last Knight on his Instagram account, where he also posted a production video showing a close-up of Optimus Primal's face with purple eyes instead of blue, and his face mostly discolored. The official Twitter account showed a 19-second short video in morse code that translates to "I'm coming for you May 31". Casting In February 2016, there were casting calls for new lead and supporting roles in Los Angeles and London, and Peter Cullen and Frank Welker were announced as returning to voice Optimus Prime and Megatron. Channing Tatum and Pete L. J. Dickson were announced to reprise their roles as Duke and Tonka Joe, respectively. The initial Lionsgate announcement listed the principal voice cast of Friendship Is Magic Tara Strong, Ashleigh Ball, Andrea Libman, Tabitha St. Germain, and Cathy Weseluck – reprising their roles. Friendship Is Magic voice actress Nicole Oliver confirmed via Twitter on January 23 that she would also be a part of the film's cast, reprising her role as Princess Celestia. Garry Chalk, Ian James Corlett, Scott McNeil, and Richard Newman were confirmed to return to voice Optimus Primal, Cheetor, Rattrap, and Rhinox. Filming Animation Like with My Little Pony (2016), the My Little Pony characters were animated using Toon Boom Harmony instead of the usual animation software Adobe Flash that is used in the television series. The production crew used simple 3D modeling in Autodesk Maya as to determine camera locations, lens, and angles, rough lighting, character and prop placement, and which way the characters would be looking and expressing. The pre-visualization crew were able to use the 3D backdrops that became more detailed throughout the film's development to integrate the simple 3D character models, and then were able to test the Toon Boom animations on top of these scenes using the placement established by Maya, helping to speed up the production. Effects As with previous Transformers and Tonka installments, Industrial Light & Magic served as the main visual effects company for Transformers: The Last Knight. In early 2016, the company showed Caruso an underwater rendering of a crash-landed alien spaceship and a new dump-truck Transformer with a cloak. Music On September 27, it was confirmed that Steve Jablonsky would return to write the score, having composed the music for the first two Transformers films. The score was released digitally on the film's release date, Friday June 23, 2017, and a limited-edition two-disc CD set of 3,000 units would be released by La-La Land Records on July 11, 2017. Release Resistance: The Last Knight was released on June 23, 2017. The teaser trailer of the film was released on December 5, 2016, and was later attached to Rogue One. Marketing The first teaser trailer aired on Monday, December 5, during ESPN's Monday Night Football, and was released online shortly thereafter. With 24 hours of its release, the trailer garnered a record-breaking 93.6 million views from social media platforms, such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram, making it the third-highest-viewed trailer of 2016, falling behind Disney's [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beauty_and_the_Beast_(2017_film) Beauty and the Beast remake] (127.6 million views) and Universal's Fifty Shades Darker (114 million views in 24 hours), but surpassing Marvel Studios' Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 trailer, which scored 81 million views in its first 24 hours online. Following the trailer's release, the film trended on all major social media sites, including YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit. It was Weibo's No. 1 trending topic in China, where the preview was viewed 16 million times its first day of release. Television spots for the film started airing ahead of the Super Bowl spot on February 3, 2017. An extended TV spot for the Super Bowl aired during Super Bowl LI, on February 5, 2017. On March 11, 2017, a new TV spot and clip were shown at Nickelodeon's 2017 Kids' Choice Awards. A new trailer aired with the release of Beauty and the Beast on March 17, 2017, while the third trailer was released on April 13, 2017. The international trailer was released on May 17th, 2017, and a smaller trailer was released shortly after, on June 4, 2017. After that, various TV spots were released. Home media Resistance: The Last Knight was released on Digital HD on September 12, 2017, and on DVD and Blu-Ray on September 26, 2017. Reception Box office Resistance: The Last Knight grossed $605.4 million in North America, and $1.816 billion for a worldwide total of $2.421 billion against a budget of $340 million. It is the second highest grossing film of all time as well as the highest grossing 2017 film. The film was the first Hasbro production to generate $2 billion in ticket sales. In North America, The Last Knight was originally projected to gross $70–75 million from 4,069 theaters over its first three days, which would have been the lowest debut of the HCU. However, after the film grossed a franchise-high $155.7 million on its first day (including $93.5 million from Thursday night previews), opening estimates were heightened to $190–195 million. It earned a complete total of $215.3 million for its debut weekend, setting an opening-weekend record, including an IMAX opening-weekend record of $26.4 million and a record for opening-weekend grosses originating from 3D showings ($110 million), breaking the previous records held by The Avengers in 2012. The opening-weekend audience was evenly split among those under and over the age of 25, with 60% of the audience male, 55% couples, 32% families and 21% teenagers. It achieved the largest opening weekend of 2017, the largest opening weekend in June, and the second-largest three-day gross for a film opening on Friday. However, on it's second weekend, the film dropped 82% to second place behind new release Despicable Me 3 with $61.8 million. It held on to the second spot on it's third week behind Spider-Man: Homecoming. On it's fourth week, the film dropped to third place with $51 million. The film eventually climbed back to first place with $110.2 million on it's fifth week. It held on to the top spot for three weeks before it's closure from theaters on August 24. Internationally, Resistance: The Last Knight secured a release in 69 countries. The film was projected to post an opening between $275–330 million from over 20,000 screens, with some analysts believing it could go as high as $350–400 million. It opened Wednesday, June 21, 2017, in 8 countries, earning $27.9 million (including previews from 12 countries). It opened in 33 more countries on Thursday, June 14, for a total of 41 countries, earning $68.4 million, marking Paramount Pictures overseas' highest-grossing Thursday ever, and for a two-day total of $92.2 million. It added 22 more countries on Friday, June 16, earning $122.1 million to score Paramount International's highest grossing Friday of all time, for a three-day total of $294.8 million. The robust Friday take helped Paramount push past $1 billion internationally in 2017 which is the second quickest ever and the studio's eleventh consecutive year overall the pass the mark. In IMAX, the film had grossed north of $68 million. On July 29, the film officially passed the $1 billion threshold to become the first film in the HCU, and the seventh film to pass the said mark. Critical response On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 76% based on 200 reviews, with an average rating of 7.3/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Cacophonous, thinly plotted, and boasting state-of-the-art special effects, The Last Knight is pretty much what you'd expect from the twenty-eighth film of the Hasbro Cinematic Universe." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 58 out of 100 based on 46 critics, indicating "mixed reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave a two stars review to the film, saying "While Justin Lin has managed to turn The Fast and the Furious franchise into a real genre, his does very little with the HCU's third Resistance film". Awards and nominations References Category:2017 films Category:Paramount Pictures films Category:Lions Gate Entertainment films Category:Skydance Media films Category:Hasbro Cinematic Universe films Category:Transformers Category:G.I. Joe Category:Tonka Category:My Little Pony Category:PG-13 rated films Category:Beast Wars Category:DHX Media films